| Thanksgiving Deer Hunt 2002 | |
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Monday morning was also frosty and we slept in. Ken was loaded up and headed home by around 9:00. Richard headed to town to buy groceries, while I remained in camp to catch up on some writing.
Monday afternoon, Richard headed to the woods while I got started on cutting and packing my doe. I got quite a bit done while he hunted, and even managed to call home to check on the wife, during a break from cutting and trimming meat.
Richard had planned to pull out his old climbing stand that's been in the woods, unused, for a couple of years now, but he couldn't find it! I'll have to head down there and take a look around, it's got to be there someplace. He also got a good look at a big doe, but she saw him first and left the scene in a hurry. At least he's seeing deer now, and that's always a good sign.
Tuesday morning, we slept in. We were sacked out in separate campers, but we each slept until around 9:00. After some coffee and cereal, we headed out to look for his misplaced climbing stand. After we got down into the area we knew it was in, I spotted it within about two minutes. He refused to honor the old "finders-keepers" rule and insists that the stand still belongs to him. Oh well, I reckon I'll have to let him keep it.
On the way back up the hill to the vehicles, I jumped a rabbit. I handed Richard's .300 Win. Mag. back to him and unholstered my Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Rem. Mag. revolver, with One Ragged Hole peep blade. I eased up on the bunny and jumped him again, but this time he stopped where I could see him. Holding on his eyeball, I squeezed the trigger. BOOM said the gun, and the rabbit made tracks. I had missed! I had to check this out.
Richard took off to find himself a deer while I headed to the range to see what was up with the One Ragged Hole. I set up a target at 25 yards and proceeded to hit about seven inches high! I tried to crank the rear sight down lower, but I ran out of adjustment about two clicks later. Apparently I had never tried to zero the revolver with hunting ammo, though I had been hitting with my light reloads just fine.
Since the One Ragged Hole refused to allow me to properly adjust my sights, I got out my gun cleaning box and rooted through it, looking for my gun's factory sight blade. I found a multitude of other goodies, such as factory sights from a T/C Seneca muzzleloader, factory plastic trigger for a Colt .45 auto, and various sight parts for Marlin rifles, but no Ruger sight blade. It must be at home someplace.
I played with it until I learned how much front sight I need to show in order to hit what I aim at, and headed back to camp. There I got to work on the final phase of cutting and packing the doe. Richard returned a couple of hours later, having seen nothing, and we had some lunch. He then went back out while I kept plugging away on the meat.
As you can tell, I take my time when I butcher a deer... it's one of those things I just have to do properly. If I take game, I will eat it, and I don't want to have to throw away any freezer-burned meat... and if it's packed properly then my wife enjoys cooking it for us.
I finally finished that up and got the last of the meat in the freezer about ten minutes before dark. Richard had cleared me to shoot another doe (for him to eat) if I found one, so I quickly dug out my A-Bolt and slipped off down the road a piece, hoping to find one feeding nearby. Seeing nothing, I walked back to camp and waited for Richard. He showed up soon, reporting that he had found another couple of bats, but no more deer. Well, there's always tomorrow... which in this case was forecast to be cool, breezy, and possibly wet. I think I'll bring out the Savage '06 again, I like that rifle.
Wednesday morning was windy and cold, and we got anything but an early start. We were out in the woods by 8:30 or so. Richard parked his butt where he could see a good large area, while I wandered for a couple of hours... neither of us saw anything. After that we headed back to camp for lunch, and we hung a few fluorescent light fixtures Darrell had donated to the camp. The rain stayed away, which we didn't mind a bit.
That afternoon we went back out and Richard parked himself on his stool again, while I took Thumper (Marlin Model 1895SS in 45-70 Gov.) and plowed my way through a couple of creek bottoms, hoping to run a deer or two out where one of us could get a shot. I found a good number of tracks, several antler rubs, an old rut scrape, and a good-sized shed antler, but again we were both skunked. What could we be doing wrong? There are plenty of deer here, they sure seem hard to find.
Thanksgiving morning we got up fairly early, to find that Ashley had returned during the night. Richard went back to his little house in the Hell Hole (his valley's new name, until the deer return), and I went back to my same spot where I'd got the buck and doe.
It was another frosty morning in the twenties after a cold, blustery day, and I was carrying another "virgin" rifle (Thumper), so I figured that it was a morning similar enough to the others that I'd see some deer and bust one, but no such luck. Richard had made the coffee in the wrong pot... I can't remember seeing a deer on this trip after having coffee out of his old green percolator--it has to be from our white drip coffee maker. Oh well! None of us saw a critter at all, unless you count the big fox squirrel I saw.
Back at camp, we fried ourselves a Thanksgiving turkey. It wasn't bad, but I much prefer to smoke my turkeys... it takes longer, but it's easier, less messy and you end up with a better meal. Instead of hunting in the afternoon, we stayed at camp and played rummy. We enjoyed goofing off, and I was feeling like I had the beginnings of a cold anyway. One hunter managed to see a deer that afternoon, but he couldn't get a shot.
That night we sat around a campfire with some of the guys and socialized some. It was a bit odd for us, as we had taken on some hermit-like tendencies during the past couple of weeks, but we did learn to enjoy a little human interaction. I reckon that's just as well, since we were only a day or so away from being forced to rejoin society anyhow... not that we were in any hurry to do so (although I was in definite withdrawal from Email and the Hunting/Shooting forum).
Friday morning we got up late and started getting things packed up to leave on Saturday morning. Before we knew it, we were all packed up and since Richard was burned out on hunting, we decided to go ahead and hit the road. Several hours later we were back at my place, safe and sound. Gee, only 764 Email messages waiting for me? No more withdrawal there!
It was a great
trip for me, I just wish it had been better for the other members of my hunting
party. But I ain't gonna pout about it, I'll count my blessings instead! It
was a whole lot better than the
previous year's trip, that's for sure. Thanks to God and to everyone who
wished me luck and sent us their prayers, I reckon that's what kept us safe
& healthy.
-Russ Chastain
